If there’s one thing that I’ve noticed about gamers, it’s that they’re a bunch of completionists. Every achievement, every relic and every single whatever in a game must be found! And that’s something that translates to the physical side of gaming as well. How often have you looked at a collection and thought to yourself about getting that missing middle game from your series? Well if you’re a fan of the old days of cartridge based gaming, then here’s a chance to scratch that bitch of an itch.
Reddit user Byuu has over 721 games from the SNES library up for auction, all waiting for buyer to meet his $25 000 price tag. Or the nearest, reasonable offer that is. Byuu has received over 120 offers already, ranging from a single cent to upwards of $300 by dozens of jokers.
But there has been some serious haggling going on behind the scenes. Byuu said that he has received offers of $13-15 000, another of $18 000 and is currently looking at two $20 000 (R172950) bids. Of course, there’s a catch, and that’s of the two interested buyers needing some time to get those funds for the massive collection.
“If I cannot get $20,000 I will not fully recoup my own investment, and I can’t afford to lose money,” Byuu said to Polygon.
I will most likely wait indefinitely. The SNES game prices have continued to rise steadily over the past several years. It will eventually sell, I am confident in that.
So what’s in the current R216 187 asking price? Well for that amount of scratch, you get the entire library of SNES games which is 721 of them to be exact, 605 game manuals, white box inserts and instruction booklets.
Add to that 26 duplicate games, another 15 duplicate boxes and around 50-100 duplicate manuals, and you’ve got a post office nightmare. According to Byuu, besides the real value being the complete set on offer, around 60 of the games present are the real money-makers, with the rest being $5 bits of plastic and bad level design;
Sure, most of (the games) are not desirable in and of themselves. The value here comes from getting a complete collection, that you don’t have to spend years searching for yourself.
The price really is fair. People outside of the game collecting scene may not be aware, but the top 20 or so games (in the collection) easily sell for $350-$1000 each when complete in box with manual.
Man has a point, because tracking all those games down would be one hell of a task. And it makes my effort to collect every single Simba chips DBZ and Pokémon tazo look crap in comparison. What do you think? If you had the cash to spend, would you grab this library of nostalgia for yourself?
Last Updated: December 13, 2012
